Abstract
Plasmonic materials and phenomena have been widely studied and applied in multiple fields for a long time. One of the most promising applications is in the engineering of biosensor devices, offering label-free and real-time analysis of biomolecular interactions with excellent performances. In this tutorial, we provide a pedagogical review of the working principles of plasmonic biosensors, main fabrication methods, instrumentation, and general guidelines for their development. Special focus is placed on the biosensor performance characterization and assessment, as well as on the sensor surface biofunctionalization. In the end, we discuss the common procedure to develop and validate biosensors for relevant biomedical and environmental purposes and future perspectives in terms of boosting capabilities and sensor integration in point-of-care platforms.
Highlights
Biosensors have been profiled as the most promising alternative for modernizing biological and chemical analyses, which will have a decisive impact on boosting healthcare and medical assistance—especially in point-of-care diagnosis—as well as in environmental control and monitoring
We provide a pedagogical review of the working principles of plasmonic biosensors, main fabrication methods, instrumentation, and general guidelines for their development
There are two main categories of nanoplasmonic biosensor technologies: based on nanoparticles (i.e., localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) biosensors, described in previous sections) and based on nanoapertures. The latter generally consists of arrays of subwavelength apertures fabricated on plasmonic thin films, and its sensing principle relies on the so-called extraordinary optical transmission (EOT), which arises as a combination of both propagating and localized SURFACE PLASMON RESONANCE (SPR).55,56
Summary
Biosensors have been profiled as the most promising alternative for modernizing biological and chemical analyses, which will have a decisive impact on boosting healthcare and medical assistance—especially in point-of-care diagnosis—as well as in environmental control and monitoring. Optical biosensors based on plasmonics are among the most widely studied and employed, with increasing interest in the field, which is continuously introducing novel materials and architectures or demonstrating new high-value applications.. Optical biosensors based on plasmonics are among the most widely studied and employed, with increasing interest in the field, which is continuously introducing novel materials and architectures or demonstrating new high-value applications.4,7 In this tutorial, we will provide a review of the most common plasmonic biosensors focusing on the description of the physics and working principles, the instrumentation of the sensing platforms, and the main performance characteristics. The commercialization and use of SPR biosensor systems has widely expanded and numerous manufacturers are selling different platforms with improved capabilities that are routinely employed in research laboratories or the pharmaceutical industry for the analysis of biochemical compounds and interactions. It is worth mentioning that SPR sensors are sold as bare instrumentation, and the application for specific biological or chemical assays has to be developed and optimized by the end user
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